If you have been switching jobs often, then it is extremely important for you to merge all of your Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) accounts from the previous employers with that of the new one. This has to be done for an extremely important reason related to the taxation on withdrawal of the EPF money.
The Saraswati Kasturirangan, Partner, Deloitte India explains that “It is important to merge all of your EPF accounts from the previous employers to the current one to ensure that there is no gap in the employment to be counted as the continuous period of service.
For the purpose of income tax, withdrawal from an EPF account is exempted from the tax after five years of continuous service. These five years of continuous service is calculated from the date of opening of EPF account to the date of making a withdrawal”.
One can merge their different EPF accounts using Universal Account Number or UAN. The UAN allows one to link all of their EPF accounts under a single account. The UAN helps you to keep track of multiple EPF accounts opened by the different organizations you have worked for.
An EPF member can give his or her UAN to the new employer for the opening of their EPF account in the new organization. Once the new account is opened, then the money from the previous employer’s EPF account can be transferred to the new one. However, if a new UAN is generated by the new organization, then you will definitely require to merge all of your UANs into one UAN.
Saraswati Kasturirangan says that “If an employee has multiple UANs, then the latest one should be linked to the new establishment. The PF balance needs to be transferred from the other UANs to the latest one”.
To submit an online request for merging 2 or more EPF accounts, your UAN must be activated on Member Sewa Portal.
Method to merge two or more EPF accounts online
Below is the Step by Step guide on merging two or more EPF accounts Online;
-
Firstly you have to visit the Member Sewa Portal via: https://unifiedportal-mem.epfindia.gov.in/memberinterface/
-
Select ‘One Member- One EPF Account (Transfer Request) under the “Online Services”.
-
On the screen, now your personal details will be shown. It will also show the details of the EPF account held with your current employer, in which the transfer will be done from the previous accounts.
-
To transfer the old or previous account, you will be required to get it attested either by the previous employer or by the present employer. An employee can choose the attestation via the present employer for the faster processing of transfer requests.
-
Enter the old member ID, i.e. previous PF account number or the previous UAN, Click on “Get Details”
-
The screen will now show the details of your previous EPF accounts. Click on ‘Get OTP’. After this, a one-time password will be sent to your registered mobile number. Enter the OTP & Click on submit.
-
After this, your request for EPF account mergers will be successfully submitted. Your present employer will be required to approve the merger requested submitted. Once your employer approves it, the EPFO authorities will process & merge your previous EPF accounts with the current ones.
-
Do check back on the portal to find out about the merger status.
-
Keep in mind that your old EPF accounts must be KYC compliant to be able to submit online requests. If you have more than one old EPF account, then the merger request for old EPF accounts will have to be submitted separately.
